The Interior Castle (66 page)

16
a declaration of his isolation: Donald,
Look Homeward
, p. 353.

17
“It’s
female trouble
”: JS to James Robert Hightower and Robert Berueffy, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

18
he argued that in fact it was likely syphilis: Roberts,
Jean Stafford
, p. 117.

19
she later told a friend: Roberts,
Jean Stafford
, p. 111.

20
“It’s hideous”: JS to James Robert Hightower, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

21
“revolting body”: JS to James Robert Hightower, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

22
“Having had to be conscious”: JS to James Robert Hightower, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

23
“I am afraid of following in my pa’s footsteps”: JS to James Robert Hightower, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

24
“When I knew Ford in America”:
Robert Lowell: Collected Prose
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1987), p. 3.

25
“This John Crowe Ransom (poet) is swell” to “will become great writer”: JS to James Robert Hightower, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

26
“says she’ll browbeat Scribner’s”: JS to James Robert Hightower, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

27
“Have not embellished”: JS to James Robert Hightower, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

28
“I watched an audience”:
Robert Lowell: Collected Prose
, p. 4.

29
“ ‘
Towmahss Mahnn
”: Robert Lowell, “Jean Stafford: a Letter,” in
Day by Day
, p. 29, and Ian Hamilton,
Robert Lowell: A Biography
(New York: Random House, 1982), p. 51.

30
“butterfly existence”:
Robert Lowell: Collected Prose
, p. 37.

31
“had nothing to do with” to “strained and terrific”: Ibid., p. 59.

32
“The only man” to “ ‘tricks of the trade’ ”: Allen Tate, “Techniques of Fiction,” in
Essays of Four Decades
(Chicago: Swallow Press, 1968), p. 129.

33
“As he is a very great master”: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 52.

34
“charm school” to “was the Reader’s Digest.”: JS, “What Does Martha Mitchell Know?”
McCall’s
100 (Oct. 1972), p. 31.

35
apparently Lowell kept: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 60.

36
“I don’t know”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Jan. 3, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

37
“The sanest and most charming” to “in both lines”: John Crowe Ransom letter to Allen Tate, Jan. 1, 1938, in
The Selected Letters of John Crowe Ransom
, ed. Thomas Daniel Young and George Core (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985), pp. 236–237.

38
“Ford is a big man”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Mar. 3, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

39
“voluminous notes”: JS to Ford Madox Ford, Feb. 1, 1938, Dept. of Rare Books, Olin Library, Cornell University.

40
“Not long ago”: Ibid.

41
“something from a poem”: Ibid.

42
“I have done some good writing” to “half of the tapestry”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Nov. 13, 1937, JS Collection, U. of Co.

43
“Well, I don’t know” to “pristine as Hemingway”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Dec. 1, 1937, JS Collection, U. of Co.

44
“With the generosity”: JS, “Truth and the Novelist,” p. 187.

45
“When I wrote them”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Dec. 6, 1937, JS Collection, U. of Co.

46
“Which of the three”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Dec. 6, 1937, JS Collection, U. of Co.

47
“I read Wolfe’s”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Jan. 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

48
“a Gargantuan creature”: Lewis, quoted in
After the Genteel Tradition
, ed. Cowley, p. 174.

49
“The book that I was writing”: Thomas Wolfe,
The Story of a Novel
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936), p. 8.

50
“Whoever is impressed”: Donald,
Look Homeward
, p. 77.

51
“whirling vortex” to “formal structure”: Wolfe,
The Story of a Novel
, p. 36.

52
“I was not”: Ibid., p. 86.

53
“each poem he finished”:
Robert Lowell: Collected Prose
, p. 59.

54
“did harm to” to “artistic intelligence”: Donald,
Look Homeward
, p. 362.

55
“The force of Wolfe’s talents”:
Collected Essays of John Peale Bishop
, ed. by Edmund Wilson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948), p. 131.

56
“Incarcerated in his own” to “but be morbid”: Ibid., pp. 132–133.

57
“the characterizations”: JS to Whit Burnett, Jan. 3, 1938, Princeton University Library.

58
“Parts of it”: Ibid.

59
“I do not think this book”: Whit Burnett to JS, Feb. 28, 1938, Princeton University Library.

60
“Yes, I know”: JS to Whit Burnett, n.d., Princeton University Library.

61
“He, as well as”: JS to Whit Burnett, Jan. 3, 1938, Princeton University Library.

62
Stephens episode: JS to James Robert Hightower, Apr. 20, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

63
“Davidson’s [
sic
] certainly right” to “in some degree”: Evelyn Scott to JS, July 10, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

64
“to cultivate their own”: Evelyn Scott to JS, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

65
“Your depth of insight” to “education of years”: Evelyn Scott to JS, Nov. 21, 1937, JS Collection, U. of Co.

1
“The crucifix of the artist”: Evelyn Scott to JS, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

2
“The more perfect the artist”: T. S. Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” in
The Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot
(New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1964), pp. 7–8.

3
“Poetry is not”: Ibid., p. 11.

4
“each poem he”:
Robert Lowell: Collected Prose
, p. 59.

5
“We claimed”: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 85.

6
For all the antiromanticism: Louis Menand,
Discovering Modernism
(Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 140–142.

7
“the worst summer of my life”: JS unpublished memoir, courtesy of Oliver Jensen.

8
Trip out West with Hightower: James Robert Hightower interview with author, Oct. 20, 1986.

9
“I started loving you”: JS to James Robert Hightower, June 21, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

10
During a stopover in Boulder: JS to William Mock, postmarked June 23, 1938, Dartmouth College Library.

11
the Thompsons remarked: Paul Thompson’s diary, June 19, 1938, courtesy of Paul Thompson.

12
“I have a desk”: JS to James Robert Hightower, postmarked July 5, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

13
“I am doing” to “not an artist”: JS to James Robert Hightower, July 2, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

14
“A rather nice gent” to “with his hands”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Aug. 31, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

15
“poor benighted father” to “in league against him”: JS to James Robert Hightower, July 2, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

16
“He sits in a corner”: JS to James Robert Hightower, June 25, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

17
“I wish to keep” to “how will I ever forget them”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Aug. 1, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

18
“I don’t laugh” to “I was writing”: JS to James Robert Hightower, July 21, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

19
“Today Mother said”: JS to James Robert Hightower, July 2, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

20
“bright solid color”: JS, “And Lots of Solid Color,”
American Prefaces
5 (Nov. 1939), p. 25.

21
“Well, we’ll be riding” to “all his life”: Ibid., p. 23.

22
“beautiful friends”: Ibid., p. 24.

23
“wooed her something fierce”: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 60.

24
“Whenever you uncover”: Ibid., p. 61.

25
“Always I will”: JS to James Robert Hightower, June 25, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

26
“Really, I don’t mind”: JS to James Robert Hightower, July 7, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

27
“It is not”: JS to James Robert Hightower, July 5, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

28
“I will put it”: JS to James Robert Hightower, July 7, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

29
“And the comparative ambition”: Evelyn Scott to JS, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

30
“That’s the place”: JS to James Robert Hightower, July 7, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

31
“I hate all this”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Sept. 30, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

32
“Darling (oh, hell)”: Ibid.

33
“the sickness of my soul”: Ibid.

34
“I want to be a woman”: Ibid.

35
“if you have told”: James Robert Hightower to JS, first week of Oct. 1939, JS Collection, U. of Co.

36
“sick … of
not
being sentimental” to “as my husband”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Oct. 3, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

37
“I have not read”: James Robert Hightower to JS, Oct. 7, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

38
“My love for you”: James Robert Hightower to JS, Oct. 10, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

39
“I want to be impetuous” to “the sake of my book”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Oct. 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

40
“I wrote him”: JS to William Mock, postmarked Nov. 27, 1938, Dartmouth College Library.

41
“some rather scary days”: Robert Giroux, “Hard Years and ‘Scary Days’: Remembering Jean Stafford,”
The New York Times Book Review
, June 10, 1984, p. 3.

42
“There is nothing”: Evelyn Scott to JS, Nov. 12, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

1
“frail agrarian mailbox post” to “an abolitionist”:
Robert Lowell: Collected Prose
, pp. 58–59; and Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 44.

2
“massive head injuries”: Blair Clark, quoted in Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 62.

3
The disastrous car ride: James Robert Hightower interview with author, Oct. 20, 1986.

4
“he got savage” to “psychopathic murderer-poet”: JS to William Mock, postmarked Nov. 27, 1938, Dartmouth College Library.

5
“I will say nothing”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Jan. 10, 1939, JS Collection, U. of Co.

6
“I want children”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Jan. 25, 1939, JS Collection, U. of Co.

7
“About Boston”: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 72.

8
“she can handle”: report on JS novel, Atlantic Monthly Press correspondence file, n.d.

9
“ironic, heartless story” to “seems to lack”: Edward Weeks letter, Dec. 1, 1938, Atlantic Monthly Press correspondence file.

10
“sizable portion”: A. G. Ogden to JS, Dec. 9, 1938, Atlantic Monthly Press correspondence file.

11
“there is too much”: JS to Edward Weeks, June 27, 1938, Atlantic Monthly Press correspondence file.

12
“no further thought”: A. G. Ogden to JS, Dec. 22, 1938, Atlantic Monthly Press correspondence file.

13
solitary drinking: JS to William Mock, Feb. 1, 1939, Dartmouth College Library.

14
“I have taken”: JS to James Robert Hightower, June 27, 1939, JS Collection, U. of Co.

15
he tracked her down: Goodman,
Jean Stafford: The Savage Heart
, p. 97.

16
“convinced that Cal Lowell”: JS to A. G. Ogden, n.d. (probably late Mar. or early Apr. 1939), Atlantic Monthly Press correspondence file.

17
“completely metamorphosed”: JS to William Mock, postmarked April 18, 1939, Dartmouth College Library.

18
Incensed by : Blair Clark interview with author, Jan. 13, 1987.

19
“Part II is going”: JS to A. G. Ogden, early May, Atlantic Monthly Press correspondence file.

20
“Jollying the sight”: Robert Lowell, “On a Young Lady Convalescing from a Brain-Injury but Unable to write a novel in Concord, Mass.,” Houghton Library, Harvard University.

21
“fast worker”: A. G. Ogden to Mr. McIntyre, Jan. 10, 1939, Atlantic Monthly Press correspondence file.

22
“Verbally I think”: Whit Burnett to JS, Feb. 14, 1938, Archives of
Story
Magazine and Story Press, Princeton University Library.

23
“is impressed”: A. G. Ogden to JS, May 12, 1939, Atlantic Monthly Press correspondence file.

24
“There was never a time” to “flirting with strangers”: JS,
Autumn Festival
MS, JS Collection, U. of Co.

25
“I will not write”: JS to James Robert Hightower, July 7, 1938, JS Collection, U. of Co.

26
“I like Gretchen Marburg”: JS to James Robert Hightower, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

27
“You could anaesthetize”: JS,
Autumn Festival
MS, JS Collection, U. of Co.

28
“is so completely negative” editorial report, n.d., Atlantic Monthly Press correspondence file.

29
“proud and sensitive”: James Joyce,
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(New York: Viking Press, 1976), p. 91.

30
“a priest of eternal imagination”: Ibid., p. 221.

31
“It was the same” to “a beautifully twisting river”: JS,
Autumn Festival
MS, JS Collection, U. of Co.